President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo is one
former Nigerian leader who obviously cannot be ignored. His comments
about the state of affairs always elicit mixed reactions among Nigerians
of varied ideological persuasions.
It was vintage Obasanjo, who spoke during
the finals of the African Regional Inter-Collegiate Debate on Human
Security, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta,
last Saturday.
The leadership question has quite
rightly, been the bane of Africa’s, nay Nigeria’s growth. For over five
decades since most states on the continent received political
independence from colonialists, it has sadly been a story of political
and economic decline.
Obasanjo, like several of his
contemporaries and commentators on public issues, lamented that the
deficit of good leaders in Nigeria and on the African continent had
robbed it of meaningful development.
He stressed that leadership problem, more than any other, had constituted a clog on the continent’s wheel of progress.
While declaring leadership as very
important to the growth and development of every country, the two-time
Nigerian leader, said, “Nobody will help Africa, nobody can help Africa
and that is the truth. If we expect others from outside to come and help
us, it is second-class help.
“What do I see for the future? We have
the calibre of women, men, young and old, that Africa needs to raise
itself and to make its voice heard in the world today and tomorrow.
“Whatever is the reason, it is something we have to tackle because we cannot continue the way it is.”
The former president also noted that
under democracy, the citizens had the freedom to deliberate on issues of
importance to the society.
That this is coming at the heels of a
general election in Kenya is instructive. The last election in the
Eastern African nation was marred by a lot of ethnic violence, images of
which were viewed across the world.
National Publicity Secretary of the
Congress for Progressive Change, however, said Obasanjo should take full
responsibility for the situation Nigeria finds itself today. According
to him, the ex- President had more than one opportunity to remedy the
situation.
He said, “He foisted this contraption
called a government which we have today on us. He hand-picked two inept
individuals to lead us.
“This is a man that has a sadistic
approach to governance. I have never seen a leader that holds the people
he is supposed to be leading in so much contempt. When he was there,
the first time, from 1976 to 1979, he was the one that went to Jaji
where he said Nigerian workers were lazy.
“Those were the workers that were
building the bridges because Julius Berger and all the others were not
bringing workers from Germany.
When he returned as a civilian leader, he
ordered troops into two Nigerian communities to kill and maim, he is
thus the least qualified to speak about our leadership deficit.”
In an article captioned: “Africa in the
21st Century-A Development Paradigm: Leadership in Nigeria” published in
2011, Dr. Carl Ogunsola Oshodi noted, quite rightly, that the success
of developed countries of the world was not only attributable to their
technological and infrastructural development, but the human elements
that were saddled with the responsibility of managing both the human and
material resources in a productive manner.
This, he contended, is leadership. He,
however, like Obasanjo, expressed regret that “despite the abundant
human and material resources in Nigeria, the social, political and
economic quagmire confronting the people, reflects poor leadership and
bad governance.”
He further postulated that Nigeria with
an estimated population of over 150 million people out of which 92 per
cent are subjected to the dictates and manipulation of the remaining
eight per cent which draws its membership from the military, political,
and business elite as well as traditional institutions.
Although this postulations may not be backed by scientific evidence, it is safe to say this is true of a number of societies.
What, however, unites Nigeria with most
of Africa with the exception of one or two countries, is the
leadership selection process which appears to foist unprepared and
oftentimes unwilling individuals on the nation.
Democracy has passed through a number of
modifications over several centuries. It has today, become the most
acceptable form of government.
Its beauty (where it is practised the
way it ought to be), is in the fact that the people have say in the way
they are governed. They not only have a say, they have their way in the
choice of who is given the mandate to manage their resources.
For a large number of Nigerians, the
variant of democracy being practised, for the last 13 years (from 1999
to date), has challenged some assumptions made about the system. The
selection process has remained a sore point as godfathers continue to
hold sway at each level.
With the use of political enforcers, they
dictate who gets what, how and when. Each Nigerian election since 1999,
appears worse than the one proceeding it. With perhaps, the exception
of one held in 2011 and state elections held in Edo and Ondo States.
It can today be argued that there are
flashes of what good democratic leadership can bring with the examples
being set in Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Edo and Jigawa States. The question
remains when will this be brought to the national level. Historians like
the late Dim Chukwuenmeka Ojukwu perhaps best captured this when he
declared that the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was “ The best
President, Nigeria never had.”
He must have taken into cognizance the
giant strides taken by Awolowo while the latter held sway as the Premier
of the Western Region. Awo scored a number of firsts; relics of his
vision remain till this day. Although not very many have genuinely
translated his vision into action, a number of ifs remain if he had been
given the privilege to preside over the affairs of the nation “even for
a day.”
Other regional leaders like the late
Nnamdi Azikiwe and the late Saudauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, also
left behind legacies that stand them out as leaders. The debate on what
would have happened if the military dictator, General Ibrahim Babangida,
and his co-conspirators had allowed the results of the June 12, 1993
presidential election which Chief MKO Abiola was believed to have won
to stand, will remain for a long time to come.
Ours has been a story of missed and
wasted opportunities with political parties which ordinarily should
serve as a launch pad for people with ideas and adequate preparation to
lead; becoming an amalnum of individuals united only in their quest for
power and material acquisition.
Already, attention is shifting from the
real issues of governance in favour of the struggle for power ahead of
the 2015 elections. The issue of whether or not President Jonathan
agreed to serve for only one term and a recent Court pronouncement that
he has the Constitutional right to seek re-election will continue to
dominate public discourse for a long time to come.
The assumption that once a man gets the
ticket of the ruling party, he is as good as having won the elections
fuels the desperation, violence, loss of lives and property often
associated with Nigerian elections.
The corruption of the process often
times begins with the imposition of candidates which appears to have
become the rule rather than the exception among political parties.
This accounts for a large number of
litigations which precede and often continue long after votes are cast
and election results announced. Internal democracy remains strange to
most political parties as existing rules in the party’s constitution and
the relevant electoral laws are flouted with reckless abandon.
The Independent National Electoral
Commission which is saddled with the responsibility of superintending
over the process is hamstrung because of existing aspects of the
electoral laws which give the political parties the final say in matters
regarding the choice of candidates.
The 2011 elections which were adjudged
internationally as a lot better than previous ones, came at a great cost
to Nigerian tax payers. Over N74 billion was spent on the procurement
of data-capturing machines, allowances for staff and other sundry
expenses during the voter registration and voting exercise.
With the elections barely two years away,
little, if anything, is being said or done about removing the names of
deceased voters from the voters roll and the registration of those that
have attained the voting age of 18.
The Independent National Electoral
Commission had complained about the absence of storage facilities for
the DDC machines. It will be difficult to say what state the machines
and other equipment are at this point.
The election management body is to
superintend over a process that is expected to produce a transparent
electoral system. What about the main actors: politicians, political
parties and the electorate? Has our approach to the electoral process
changed? These are questions that need answers if democracy is to serve
its purpose of producing a leader that will produce the kind of
superlative performance required to take the nation out of the woods.
Will 2015 mark the beginning? Only time will tell.
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